Judge Finds Assessments on Healthy Group Trusts Unconstitutional

By Michael Whiteley, Eastern Bureau ChiefA New York judge late Wednesday ruled that the assessments imposed on 13 healthy group self-insured trusts to pay for a string of trust failures across the state represented an "unconstitutional taking" of trust assets.The ruling by Acting Supreme Court Justice Kimberly A. O'Connor in Albany is expected to reshape the debate over the future of New York's troubled group self-insured trust system. (The Supreme Court is a trial level court in New York State.)O'Connor ruled that laws enacted by the New York Legislature to establish the self-insu...